Ahmedabad, May 12 (IANS) With the monsoon season approaching, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has completed large scale pre-monsoon preparations for road repair and maintenance across the city, including stocking construction material, preparing machinery and operationalising its fully automated hotmix plant to respond quickly to potholes and road damage during heavy rainfall.

The civic body has planned to supply nearly 42,000 metric tonnes of hotmix material during the upcoming monsoon season and has also approved tenders in all zones for patchwork work using infrared and jet patcher technologies to ensure rapid repairs during adverse weather conditions.

According to AMC data, a total of 44,333.71 metric tonnes of hotmix material was used across Ahmedabad during the previous monsoon season for road maintenance and repair work in various zones.

The North Zone recorded the highest usage at 9,831.28 metric tonnes, followed by the West Zone with 9,331.46 metric tonnes, the South Zone with 8,389.04 metric tonnes and the North West Zone with 8,384.33 metric tonnes.

The East Zone used 4,041.43 metric tonnes of material, while the South West Zone consumed 3,671.69 metric tonnes and the Central Zone used 534.30 metric tonnes. In addition, 151.08 metric tonnes of material was utilised for bridge-related projects.

AMC officials stated that sufficient stock of hotmix material has already been arranged in every zone and machinery has been kept ready to ensure immediate road repair work during rainy conditions.

Teams and equipment have also been deployed across zones to tackle situations where potholes develop or roads are damaged due to heavy rain.

The corporation’s hotmix plant currently has a production capacity of 180 tonnes per hour, while the bitumen tank has a storage capacity of up to 100 metric tonnes.

To maintain uninterrupted operations during the monsoon, AMC has stocked 4,000 metric tonnes of 20 mm aggregate, 3,000 metric tonnes of 10 mm aggregate and 5,000 metric tonnes of 6 mm aggregate.

The civic body has also stored 5,000 metric tonnes of dust stock and 3.7 metric tonnes of bitumen.

AMC explained that a hotmix plant is a processing facility where stone, sand, filler and bitumen are heated and mixed at a specific temperature to prepare “hot mix asphalt”, which is used for the construction and repair of roads and is considered essential for building durable road infrastructure.

The civic body’s advanced hotmix plant at Piplaj area is fully automated and equipped with a SCADA system.

Officials said a dedicated control cabin has been set up where, once the required data is entered, the entire process operates automatically through a batch-mix system.

Explaining the process, AMC said dry material is first loaded separately into four bins through a loader. Aggregates and bitumen are then transferred into the plant through conveyor belts as per design specifications.

The material is mixed at temperatures ranging between 170 and 175 degrees Celsius before being loaded into dumpers and supplied to the respective zones and wards for road repair work.

–IANS

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